ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the case study of north-east England, and one particular type of material culture produced in that region during the eighteenth century: high-design glassware. It illustrates how material culture can provide new insights for historians into the tensions between the unequal values ascribed to eighteenth-century cultural production and the political character of regional identity construction. The case study of Beilby glass in the chapter provides a brief overview of the history of glassmaking in early modern England. The history of glass production in north-east England forms an important part of its industrial heritage, and rates, along with coalmining and shipbuilding, as one of the industries that brought Tyneside and Wearside global economic importance during the nineteenth century. The first piece of plate glass in the world was manufactured in Sunderland, and, at its height, Newcastle and the surrounding area was one of the most notable centres for glassmaking in the world.
